Pages

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Little Gray Sweater Skirt

This fun (and maybe a little funky?) sweater skirt was the product of a couple of different days of KCWC work. And I honestly don't remember which days those were. Maybe day 2 and 6? I'm not sure. Now that it's over, last week seems like kind of a blur. A happy, productive blur, but a blur nonetheless.

This project actually started out as a different project that failed and ended up as this sweet little skirt. More details after the jump!

I bought this men's sweater vest from the thrift store a few weeks ago after seeing this great little sweater dress refashioned from an old sweater vest over on ISLY. Olivia really only ever wears dresses and skirts on Sundays and, since they get worn so little, they're always at the bottom of my list of things to make for her. I know. I'm just not a dress mom.

But I thought a sweater dress would be a great addition to her winter wardrobe since it never feels like the church building is never the right temperature for women. (Sorry, men, but it's true. Take off your suit coats and set the temp to something we can all be comfortable at.) And, unfortunately, the nursery room is always even colder than the rest of the building. Anyway, a sweater dress seemed like a right good idea.

Enter the longest sweater dress ever.

Haha! I hadn't really realized how loooooong the sweater vest was when I bought it. I looked normal on the hanger, of course, but it was way too long for Olivia.

And I didn't even feel like trying to save the dress because I was kind of an idiot about the way I sewed up the sleeves and neckline. Blerg.

So it sat in the "don't know what to do with you now" pile for a few days.

And then on Saturday night I was feeling rather burned out from KCWC sewing and I just wanted a quick project so I could check off my KCWC goal for the day. That was when it occurred to me that, since the dress wasn't worth saving anyway, I should just cut it off and make it a skirt.

I had initially planned on keeping the ribbing on the bottom and sewing some elastic into the top, but then I realized that if I just flipped it over I wouldn't have to add any elastic at all! Score.

So instead I took it in a little more on the sides, serged the new "bottom" edge, and called it good.

Bryan said it looked funny with her shirt tucked in. I say she rocks it.

P.S. In honor of KCWC, the Undies Pattern is half off! Snatch it up while it's good and cheap! :)

4 comments:

That skirt is totally adorable! Using the existing ribbing as the waistband was a genius idea. I don't normally tuck shirts in (mine, or my kids), but this way it looks like a mini high-waisted skirt. Super fashionable. Olivia looks so grown up in these pictures.

Super cute! And your dress didn't look so bad either....but it looks like the girl in the link was a little taller than Olivia. Too bad. The skirt is cute.

I'm not a dress mom either...but my Katie is definitely a dress/skirt girl, so it's a good thing the people who give us hand-me-downs are skirt moms. I think Katie's worn a dress or skirt every day this week so far.

I love that you could reverse the skirt. Depending on the day. And then as I thought of this it made me think of mullets, business in the front party in the back. However you look at it, the skirt is so cute. I do love a simple and easy project. Especially with kids that will grow out of it fairly quickly.